President-elect Joe Biden has selected a pioneering geneticist to be his science advisor and can be elevating the project into a Cabinet position
President-elect Joe Biden declared Friday he has picked a pioneer in mapping the human genome — the so-called”book of life” — to be his chief science advisor and can be elevating the very best science job into a Cabinet position.
He’s the very first life scientist to get this job.
Saying”science will probably always be in the forefront of the government,” Biden said he’s fostering the science adviser article to Cabinet level, a first in White House history.
The president-elect also stated he’s keeping National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins, who worked together with Lander about the human genome project, and called two prominent female scientists to co-chair that the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Lander held that standing throughout Obama administration.
Collinsin an email announcement, known as Lander”vibrant, visionary, highly creative and extremely effective in others”
“I predict he’ll have a deep transformational impact in American science,” Collins explained.
The job as manager of technology and science coverage requires Senate confirmation.
Science organizations were quick to commend Lander as well as the marketing of the science article.
“Elevating (the science advisor ) function to member at the President’s Cabinet clearly indicates that the government’s aim to involve scientific experience in each policy debate,” said Sudip Parikh, chief executive director of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society.
Biden picked Princeton’s Alondra Nelson, a social scientist who studies science, engineering and societal inequality, as deputy science policy leader.
Lander, plus a mathematician, is a professor of Science at Harvard and MIT and his work was cited almost half a million times in scientific literature, among among scientists. He’s won numerous science awards, including a MacArthur”genius” fellowship along with a Breakthrough Prize, also is among Pope Francis’ scientific advisers.
Lander has stated in talks an chance to describe science is his”Achilles’ heel”:”I really like teaching and over this, I firmly believe that regardless of what I do within my scientific career, the main effect I could ever have around the planet will be through my pupils.”